By Mary Hladky
A 23-year-old North Lauderdale woman is charged with striking and killing a New York federal judge on North Ocean Boulevard in Boca Raton and injuring a 6-year-old boy.
Nastasia Snape was driving erratically when she drove around stopped traffic and onto the sidewalk near the Spanish River Boulevard intersection, striking Sandra Feuerstein, 75, at about 10:09 a.m. on April 9, according to the arrest report. Feuerstein, who was pronounced dead at Delray Medical Center, was nominated to the federal bench in 2003 by President George W. Bush.
Snape continued northbound and struck the boy as he was crossing Ocean Boulevard in the crosswalk. The boy suffered non-life threatening injuries and was released from Delray Medical Center, according to Boca Raton police.
Snape’s vehicle crashed at the intersection of Southeast 10th Street and Southeast 6th Avenue in Delray Beach.
The first Delray Beach police officer on the scene said Snape at first appeared to be unconscious, but she then began to convulse or have seizure-like movements.
She got out of her red two-door sedan and told the officer she was OK. Once inside an ambulance, she screamed and fought with medics, stating that she was “Harry Potter.” Medics administered Ketamine, an anesthetic, to calm her, the arrest report states.
Among her possessions were containers labeled as “THC Cannabis” and the synthetic drug called “T salts,” which the arrest report states is known to cause excited delirium.
Snape, whose last name is the same as Severus Snape, a prominent character in the Harry Potter books, was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death, vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash involving injury.
Feuerstein, who served on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, previously was a Nassau County District Court judge and a justice on the New York Supreme Court.
“Judge Feuerstein was a treasured member of our Eastern District bench,” District Court Executive Eugene Corcoran said in a statement. “Her eccentric style and warm personality lit up the courtroom. She will be missed by her colleagues and litigants alike."
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